Intentional Performers

Scott Drew is the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Baylor University. Coach Drew began his career at Baylor in 2003 when he took over a program that was decimated by tragedy, player departures, a depleted roster, and NCAA restrictions. He was slow and methodical in the process in which he went about to turn the program around. He really tried to recruit a solid foundation of talent in high school players, and also really focused on who would align and fit with what they were trying to do at Baylor. Fast-forward to almost 20 years later, and Baylor has become a contender almost annually. They won a national championship, they are constantly at the top of the rankings, and in their conference, the Big 12, they are a perennial contender. He has built a program at Baylor that was on the verge of not even existing because of some of the hardships, the challenges, and the messiness that encapsulated the program he inherited.   This conversation is wide-ranging. We talk a lot about faith; Coach Drew talks about faith in almost every conversation he has with people, and you’re going to hear that spew out of him. He also talks a lot about leadership. He talks a lot about character and what he’s looking for in his program. He also talks a ton about culture during our conversation. We’re going to talk a little bit about his upbringing and his family in this conversation, we’re also going to really focus in on why he’s so positive and how he sees the world. At his core, he is an optimist, he doesn’t hold back or mince words to describe himself as a Christian, and he’s also a coach. This is someone who really does care about developing people and creating a culture that is championship-level on multiple fronts.   Coach Drew had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “It’s not a “got to” job it’s a ‘get to’ job” (6:30). “Appreciate when people give us opportunities to serve, [be] grateful for those opportunities, and [be] thankful when people treat you right” (6:50). “How you view life sometimes determines how long you live. There’s no reason to put stress on the things that are negative when it’s really just how you look at them, how you perceive them” (7:15). “If you’re not striving to get better, then you’re probably getting worse” (8:20). “One way’s not the only way” (9:00). “If you’ve only got a short time here, let’s make it enjoyable and make it pleasing for as many other people as possible” (9:55). “We never just get the most talented players, we get who fits our culture, fits us the best” (12:55). “I spend more time with our assistant coaches and staff than I do my own family” (13:05). “I want to surround myself with the iron-sharpens-iron people who make me better” (13:30). “I love brining excitement and joy and hype into the game” (17:30). “We’re all human, which means we’d rather be praised than criticized” (20:05). “You’d always rather see a lesson than hear it” (22:25). “I pride myself on trying to be a servant leader” (22:45). “Like everybody, you want to feel like you made a difference” (23:15). “It takes a team to win, and at the end of the game they don’t say one person won” (28:00). “If they’re being a great teammate, they’re being coachable. If they’re being a great teammate, they’re acknowledging their teammates, they’re lifting them up, they’re building them up… they’re giving love” (28:20). “We use ‘we’ a lot, we don’t use ‘I’ very much” (29:15). “Our job as coaches is to have a pulse of the chemistry and who would fit in” (29:35). “We’ve always tried to take character over talent, but over time you’re able to get both” (34:15). “Nobody can measure the heart” (39:00). “Head coaches are only as good as their staff, so I always try to hire people that are smarter than me” (42:45). “I wouldn’t be where I am without my dad” (44:00). “To win a championship you have to have great chemistry” (49:10). “Coaches can be great leaders, but if no one’s following it doesn’t matter” (50:05). “Life is short. We’re going to be positive, we’re going to be cheerleaders, and we’re going to give everything we have, and if it’s not good enough we should go to bed knowing we tried our best” (52:30).   Additionally, make sure to check out Coach Drew on Twitter @BUDREW and to purchase the book The Road to Joy anywhere you prefer to buy books! Thank you so much to Coach Drew for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Today’s episode, episode #277, is a little bit different. I have interviewed 276 different people, and over that span I’ve often contemplated and though, “You know who I would love to have on here? My dad.” He’s one of the most interesting people I’ve ever been around, and I’ve had a front row seat to witness, to him questions, to observe, to notice. I was hesitant to have my dad on as a guest because I like to ask questions that other people don’t necessarily ask. And certainly, I’ve had friends on the podcast, people I care deeply about, but I knew with my dad it would be extremely personal. I wanted to ask him questions that I don’t always get to ask him. Even though there’s space for us in our relationship to ask questions, we don’t always sit for an hour and a half and learn with each other. We don’t always sit and ask what’s really on our mind and share in a vulnerable way, and we have a very healthy relationship. There was some fear for me in bringing my dad into this community, bringing my dad into my world, even though I’ve always been part of his. I’ve referenced my dad a ton in conversations with others. My dad is now 72 years old. I didn’t want to wait any longer to ask him some questions I was really curious about and to share him. He’s one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever been around. He’s one of the most intentional performers I’ve ever been around. And so, I felt inspired, obligated, and excited to go deeper with him and to be willing to share a side to him that others don’t know. We uncovered and talked about some things that we hadn’t ever talked about. Most of us don’t ask the questions that we want to ask to the people that are closest to us. For me, that was pretty jaw-dropping that there were parts of this conversation that we hadn’t discussed in detail previously. For you, as you’re listening to this conversation, I hope you take that away more than anything else. I hope this conversation inspires you. I hope it challenges you to sit down with the people that you love and just be really curious and listen without judgment. My dad, Bruce Levenson, became more well-known when he bought into the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers. Before that, he was extremely successful in the business world. He co-founded a company called United Communications Group. They acquired a lot of companies along the way, including a company called Tech Target which ended up going public and is still a publicly traded company. There was a company called Gas Buddy they acquired at one point as well. My dad and his co-founder Ed are journalists. That’s their trade, that’s what they came into the business world doing. So, they really believed in creating exceptional content. They were a business-too-business newsletter, and they would sell their content to other companies. My dad also went to law school at night as he was working extremely hard. My dad does not mind working hard, he actually enjoys it. Philanthropically, he has been extremely active for as long as I can remember. He and my mom formed the Do Good Institute at the University of Maryland, which aims to educate and train the next generation of non-profit leaders and people in the social sector who are changing our world in really amazing ways. Hope you enjoy this unique episode. Here are some impactful quotes from my dad from the episode: “When you stop growing, you start dying. I have no interest in dying” (16:15). “I’d rather bet for myself than against myself” (16:45).“I’ll keep walking fast for as long as I can” (16:50). “Always finding time for family, time to do things other than working, was always a priority” (18:10). “I don’t ever remember coming home tired from work. I loved work” (22:15). “I love to build in so many different ways… and part of the love of that is being part of a team” (23:15). “I still take on too much” (25:15). “I added an element of intelligent impatience” (31:50). “I would hope they would describe me as someone who is stimulating to be at the table with” (33:30). “The partnerships that did work all had one thing in common: there was this courtship where mutual respect and trust was built, we didn’t jump into it” (36:00). “When you’re walking fast, sometimes you walk right past that communication” (38:50). “For me, it was always about being my own boss” (44:00). “Anybody who says money doesn’t buy you happiness isn’t spending their money wisely” (44:30). “Don’t do it alone. I really believe in the power of partnerships” (45:15). “I want to set an example for my community” (46:05). “There’s room for error if you’re overcommunicating and being overly assertive” (50:00). “I care that if someone meets me in passing and googles me, they may read something about me that makes them think less of me” (55:00). “There were a lot of similarities between the sports business and my business” (1:06:30). “The glass is always 80% full for me” (1:11:45). “I’m not superman. I don’t have answers for everything. Depression is something very real and very debilitating, you have to work really hard to work your way out of it” (1:15:55). “It’s hard for me to call it a failure because I tried my hardest and controlled what I could control” (1:24:05). “I’m the luckiest guy in the world” (1:28:10).   Thank you so much to my dad for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Julien Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO at Practice. Previously, he was also the Co-Founder of a company called Breather. Additionally, he was a New York Times Bestselling Author of 3 books. He is somebody who’s been a speaker and a writer. Creative would be the word I use to best sum up Julien.   Julien had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “One of the ways to have the biggest impact on the world is to work with a team of people that will care about a common purpose” (7:15). “How much of a mercenary are you vs a missionary?” (8:15). “I was a hard employee… I wanted a level of autonomy that I never earned” (11:35). “I felt that I had a value in myself that I saw that was very difficult for me to show other people. I had to step completely out of the system” (13:00). “People make everything happen. When it’s not people, it’s culture” (23:00). “I’m more deliberate about people now than I ever was” (23:15). “To be deliberate with the people that you work with has got to be the most valuable thing that you can possibly do at a startup, especially at the early stage” (24:15). “The number one thing that I care about today is making sure the team is amazing and making sure the team is all aligned together” (26:00). “I’ve been working to empower solo people for as long as I can think” (30:15). “The challenge is to scale beyond your own thing” (41:15). “There’s hundreds of coaches out there, but no one knows how to find them other than by referral” (43:10). “I like the intimacy of the relationship in coaching” (44:00). “CEOs have almost no opportunity to be their honest self, they’re always on. To be able to give them an opportunity to not be on… and to allow them to authentically be themselves is incredibly rewarding” (44:30). “Coaching lets me step out of my own company, which is really rewarding” (44:50). “No matter who you are or how you get it, you do need a connection to something greater than yourself” (50:45). “As much as possible, I try to connect to things that are bigger than myself to remember that there’s a lot of stuff out there in the world” (51:10). “I feel that you’ve got to know what you’re getting into” (54:25). “To me, what venture really means is access to money and access to a really strong density of talent” (55:20). “Venture brings together incredibly smart and talented people” (55:50). “My identity was absolutely attached to being the CEO and Co-Founder of Breather, and to a degree it’s attached to Practice, but less so than the people who have done nothing before that at all” (58:00). “Let’s build a business that will support the next 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000 people like this” (59:15). “I really believe that in 5-10 years we can be one of the most successful companies in the world. To do that right, from the very beginning, you have to have that intent” (1:00:45). “One of the things that you’ve got to do when you get into venture-backed businesses, you have to know that you can build something for a customer that you love, and you have to know that you can do it for 10 years” (1:01:15).   Additionally, make sure to check out Julien on Twitter. You can also purchase any of Julien’s books (The Flinch, Trust Agents, the Impact Equation; Companies: Practice, Breather) anywhere where you normally buy books! If you want to learn more about Practice, feel free to give the website a look. I would also encourage you to check out the website for Peter Shallard, known as the Shrink for Entrepreneurs. Thank you so much to Julien for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Joanne McCallie is a legendary basketball coach. She was named the ACC Coach of the Year twice (2010, 2012), and the Big Ten Coach of the Year once (2005). Additionally, she was a 3x America East Coach of the Year (1995, 1996, 1999). She has a basketball resume that is incredible, including in 2005 winning the AP Coach of the Year. She won 646 games and only lost 255 games in her coaching career. Joanne decided to retire from basketball, and she has been an advocate, and really been courageous in sharing her story around mental health and being bipolar. We get into a deep, enriching conversation, and it’s a conversation I truly feel we have to have. The reality is that mental health, suicide, depression, anxiety, they don’t discriminate. It can hit any of us; it can hit all of us. I love how open Joanne is about sharing her story, and also how could she have so much success while dealing with some of these challenges.   Joanne had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “If you take the pain and the hurt and think of it as this blanket around a person, they can’t see through that blanket” (8:35). “If you hear the question ‘How could they [attempt to commit suicide],’ the answer is ‘With enough pain and enough suffering and the inability to see through the blanket, it happens’” (8:50). “In our society today, almost 1 out of every 2 people are struggling with some element on the [mental health] continuum” (11:05). “[My disorder] is just a part of me. There are many parts of me” (11:20). “Whatever you’re going through, whether it’s a diagnosis or not, this too shall pass, and it is not all of you” (12:00). “There’s lots of places where we can lose our identities relative to sport, or anything else for that matter” (13:50). “Productivity makes for happiness” (22:00). “If anyone is feeling nonproductive and non-loved, then that can really affect your feelings about life” (22:20). “I’ve made the transfer into my new life, but more importantly, the grief that I’d been holding and the anxiety of those losses, I’m getting over it. It’s finally turning” (24:05). “Never go alone with pain” (25:30). “Grieving is a process, and you can’t get around it” (25:45). “Grief is personal, but the smallest things can connote progress” (26:30). “I complement everybody for carving their path” (27:50). “I think the transfer portal is a nightmare, I think it’s going to ruin the game if it’s not handled more properly” (29:10). “[Mental health professionals] need to be elevated in our society” (35:45). “What I wish I had was a radio show where people could call in anonymously and I could answer questions [about mental health]. Those are kinds of things I think we need” (40:35). “Mental health awareness is so incredibly difficult, that I’m in a tough spot. Because I don’t want to self-promote” (44:30). “I feel I should be at every campus” (49:40). “How could I ever go back to coaching?” (50:10). “Mental health should be celebrated. Mental health impairment should be respected. It does not discriminate” (52:45). “This whole mental health thing is going to go on for a long time” (56:15). “I swim 5-6 times a week, the pool is a great escape for me” (59:50). “There’s so much we don’t know about people, and that’s why we can’t make judgments on them” (1:03:40). “Faith is in your own journey. There’s no judgment on anything that you believe as you work through it” (1:06:05). “Aspiring, dreaming, being courageous, and peace [are the opposite of fear]” (1:07:25).   Additionally, make sure to check out Joanne’s book Secret Warrior and her website! Thank you so much to Coach P for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Typically, I don’t like to have guests back on the podcast for a 2nd time. But today is a little different. Joe and I decided to create a podcast that is interesting, unique, and something that I got a ton of excitement out of. We get into the weeds of if being a guest on a podcast is different than being a host on a podcast, which led to further conversations about being a host vs. being a guest in life, since there are so many facets of society in which we play host and in which we play guest.   As a little bit about Joe if you don’t remember from our past conversation, Joe Ferraro is currently entering his 23rd year as an educator, teaching 12th grade English. Joe also teaches public speaking and creative writing. In addition to his work in the classroom, he is the founder of damngoodconversations.com. Damn Good Conversations is a company whose mission it is to teach you repeatable ways to have the best conversations in your life and work. His flagship service is a weekly personal growth podcast, which is called “One Percent Better.”   If this episode resonates with you, let me know. And if it doesn’t, I would love to hear your thoughts on why you felt that way as well.   Joe and I had a number of insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “I usually use the word workshop. Because if you feel like you’re listening to a keynote, regardless of if you’re 1 person or 1 of 30, the idea is that you’re going to sit there and you’re going to listen the entire time. That’s not how I do [talks]. I do experiences” (8:20). “I don’t want to talk at people, I want to talk with people” (8:40). “Whenever you’re having a planned meaningful conversation or a meeting, agendas are so valuable” (10:35). “I don’t want host and guest to bleed over into status roles” (14:10). “Everything in this podcast arena, with a microphone, is all the same to me because this is where I want to be” (16:50). “My preparation as a host far exceeds my preparation as a guest” (20:30). “I very rarely go into a conversation without, baseline, 5-10 questions” (22:20). “I could be more intentional as a guest” (22:30). “Anytime someone is paying me to help them figure some stuff out, I need to honor that. That is a big deal. When you put stuff out on a microphone into the real world, that is a big deal” (23:00). “If you are only going to be the one asking questions and you’re never going to share yourself and be vulnerable in any conversation, I’m not so sure that that is leading, I’m not so sure that that is how you build a great relationship. It’s a one-way street and I think great conversations are two ways” (25:20). “Great leaders listen. Great leaders ask great questions. That is true. And, great leaders offer great insight and need to be able to share with conviction what they believe” (27:00). “A couple episodes ago, I threw out this idea of a reverse mentor. Which is someone who’s less experienced, usually younger, but certainly and vitally less experienced than me, who I intentionally sought out to learn from” (29:00). “I’m against shooting the breeze and seeing where things go. Once the relationship has been established where there’s mutual respect and expertise on at least one side, if not both, now I’m diving in with two feet” (30:10). “Reverse mentor: someone with less experience who can give me fresh eyes” (30:15). “We both believe there are different forms of preparation, but it has to exist” (32:00). “Your attention and your focus are incredible commodities” (33:15). “Being a good host does not guarantee you will be a good guest, and being a good guest does not guarantee you will be a good host” (36:30). “When I watch a panel and someone knows how to do it, I sit back in awe, because it’s so hard to ask questions that are interesting and unique and can unlock someone’s potential and how they think” (41:45). “Would you rather be interviewed by Tim Ferris, or would you rather interview Tim Ferris?” (42:40) “Saying nothing is different than saying something and bringing a different shine to it” (48:00). “Those who are interesting are interested” (49:05). “We are constantly playing host and guest with people we’re talking with, there just may not be a blinking light or a microphone” (49:40). “I think it’s okay to treat different opportunities differently” (50:50). “’Not everybody thinks that way’ is a really powerful framing mechanism” (51:50).   You can check out the website for Damn Good Conversations here. Also, I highly recommend following Joe on Twitter @FerraroOnAir. Thank you so much to Joe for coming back on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

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-founding Leaders in Tech, which brings the principles and process of “Touchy Feely” to executives in Silicon Valley. Prior to coming to Stanford, she had careers in sales and marketing management and was a partner in two consulting firms. She is the co-author of the highly acclaimed and award-winning book, Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues which contains the lessons of "Touchy Feely" that thousands of students have consistently described for decades as life changing and worth the price of their MBA. She lives in San Francisco, California, with her husband of 36 years.   Carole had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “We’re all works in progress” (14:00) “Every opportunity with another human being is an opportunity to learn” (14:15). “I don’t think I can be a good teacher if I’m not constantly a good student” (15:15). “The more I learn as a student, the more motivated I am to teach” (15:30). “Too much education is loaded with baggage around teachers being the ones who know and students being the ones who don’t” (15:55). “Asking someone to give you feedback has the potential to make them feel vulnerable” (20:55). “I was, and am, unafraid to lean into the discomfort” (25:00). “A fundamental premise of learning and growth is that you don’t learn anything unless you step outside your comfort zone” (25:20). “I’m going to show the world that it doesn’t matter that I’m a girl” (32:30). “Our tendency when we feel pinched is to say nothing” (43:00). “Substitute the pronoun ‘it’ for ‘I,’ ‘you,’ or ‘we’” (43:40). “There’s so much trouble in business when it comes to using emotions effectively” (47:25). “There’s an important place in business for feelings, as long as we learn to express them in ways that are productive, and we learn to use them in the same way that we use thoughts” (47:45). “Thoughts and feelings are like treble and bass in music” (48:00). “What is needed for two people to relate and to connect with one another?” (54:15). “We’re all works in progress. Sometimes learning something once isn’t enough… that’s where we often need someone else” (1:01:00). Additionally, make sure to check out Carole on LinkedIn! Moreover, if you want more information about Leaders in Tech, click here, and if you want more information about Carol’s book, click here. Thank you so much to Carole for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

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 who want to tell me how successful I am” (7:35). “Nobody that’s good got better when other people said, ‘you’re good’” (7:40). “Nobody [inspires me]. Everybody’s got some stuff going on with them” (11:45). “Mostly I just look for people who walk the walk. That’s it” (12:05). “I tend to value humility” (14:20). “I like to keep things simple, so I just want to raise a kind kid” (20:30). “My number one goal is to raise a kid who sees things in the world, sees things that are wrong, and says ‘I can be a part of solving them’” (20:35). “When I see a kid being really kind to another kid, I instantly go too ‘What are their parents modeling? Am I modeling those kinds of behaviors’” (25:00). “We’re now hiring a Community Impact manager specifically to make sure we improve [our number of volunteer hours]” (29:30). “I got all this by not wanting it, by just trying to be better than I was yesterday” (30:00). “Be unafraid to suck at something new” (30:30). “The ROI on culture is at an all-time low because people don’t want to admit to themselves that it’s about the money” (41:55). “If you take no feedback, you don’t learn, you don’t grow. But then you also have to learn to put that feedback in context at the time and the person and ask should I really listen to all this stuff equally?” (42:40). “Everything is about how you feel when you put your head on the pillow at night and the decisions that you’ve made that day” (44:50). “If I don’t have boundaries, I may try to be too available to too many people and not be available to the people who support me” (46:45). “Watching somebody grow, watching somebody get an opportunity, watching your company be a platform for somebody to get that next best job, it’s like teaching” (51:15). “I love losing because it’s humbling” (52:50). “I like minimizing excuses for myself” (54:50). “I don’t care what anybody does as long as they’re true to themselves” (59:10). “Be true to you and be brave enough to say, ‘This is what I value.’” (59:20).   Additionally, make sure to check out the Seer Interactive website and Wil’s blog, and to follow Wil on Twitter! Thank you so much to Wil for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

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 featured on MSNBC, CNN, ESPN, and Entrepreneur Magazine. ESPN did a feature on what Jesse is creating in Savannah. The Bananas have been awarded with Organization of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Business of the Year, and won the CPL Championship in their first year. While they emphasize fun and entertainment at their baseball games, they also win. The Savannah Bananas currently have sold out every game since their first season, and have a waiting list in the thousands of tickets. In addition to that, Jesse discusses the wait list they have for players who want to come play for them, and for employees at a time when people are leaving companies in droves, Jesse points out that they are willing and able and wanting to come work for his organization. He released his first book, Find Your Yellow Tux: How to be Successful by Standing Out, in January of 2018 with a world book tour at Epcot. Jesse has been featured on over 500 podcasts and is an in-demand keynote speaker all over the country, sharing his fans-first experience on how to stand out, be different, and create raving fans, both customers and employees.   Jesse had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “Swing hard in case you hit it” (8:45). “Every day I see things from my kids that blows me away” (10:15). “I make sure I do things all day that give me energy” (11:50). “No matter what, we are hungry for entertainment. We’re hungry for fun.” (14:30). “The best creators are often just creating something for themselves” (15:00). “I am hungry to use this platform too entertain millions with something they’ve never seen before” (15:30). “Success is happiness and freedom and fulfillment. The ability to do what you want, when you want, to give you purpose (16:20). “I’m mostly just doing something I love, and it gives me energy” (16:30) “Every decision we make, we ask ourselves is it fans first?” (18:05). “How do we create things people have never seen before on a baseball field” (18:30). “We’re not focused on winning, we’re focused on having fun. And what happens when you focus on having fun? The wins take care of themselves” (21:20). “I’ve really pushed the envelope on hiring my weaknesses and growing that way” (28:15). “Our hiring process is over 3 months long” (30:00). “Our mission is fans first, entertain always” (31:00). “We call every person that buys merchandise from us and thank them. We call every person that buys a ticket from us and thank them” (34:10). “Every single morning I do 10 ideas” (37:00). “My biggest fear is irrelevance” (37:15). “My idea book is always on me” (38:30). “We don’t believe people want to be managed. They want to be led” (45:00). “Everyone plays a role in our show” (46:15). “We’ve done lots of things that didn’t work, but it’s led us to all the things that do work” (51:00). “I’m not focused on the next quarter, I’m focused on the next quarter century” (51:15). “You do what gives you energy, and my energy list is sharing, creating, and growing” (53:40). “If you want to be lifted up, lift others up” (55:00).   Additionally, make sure to search “Yellow Tux” anywhere to learn more about Jesse and the Bananas! Thank you so much to Jesse for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

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 can outperform even in a few minutes what you could do in hours of work” (10:15). “Chill Work tries to prioritize that high quality, high impact time over hustle culture, total work time” (10:30). “Even if you perfectly design your company and your business and do near-perfect hiring, you will still encounter those people-challenges as you ramp up to 100, 200+ employees” (12:20). “This is part of the challenge for entrepreneurs in general, and all human beings, is that sometimes what feels good and right to you internally isn’t what you get externally recognized and rewarded for” (14:45). “I would not take a company public on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange” (25:25). “Tomorrow, if all of our data sources for SparkToro disappeared… we could quickly pivot and probably in 6 months have a business that provides similar value from other data sources” (33:10). “How do we stay small, nimble, profitable, and happy for a long period of time?” (33:45). “I wish there was more media, more awards, more recognition, more people doing interviews more celebrating, the culture of small entrepreneurship, slow entrepreneurship” (33:55). “2/3 of venture funds will not meet their minimum bar for investment” (40:00). “We have a very asynchronous communication style” (47:15). “If there’s nothing on my calendar and my inbox is 0, I have no work to do. I’m going to go inside and play video games” (48:45). “We empty our cups professionally and we have nothing left to give personally and emotionally to our partners or kids or families or friends” (50:15). “Don’t do what I did and start a business out of college. Go work for a few startups, go work for a few companies and figure out what you like and hate” (52:25). “Sometimes you have too mistakes for yourself before you can learn” (55:10). “I feel like I have enough. I want to keep doing it, I love doing it, but I don’t have that hole in my chest that can only be filled with people [praising] me” (59:00). “I have enough, but I don’t think I am enough. I would be very scared to stop a journey of self-discovery and improvement… I don’t want to ever stop that” (1:00:55). “There’s no perfect human being. Learning and growing is core to that” (1:02:55). “You can do anything, but you can’t do nothing and you can’t do everything” (1:03:05). “I am deeply optimistic about a lot of the things that are going on in my general orbit” (1:13:00). “Social media is a technological innovation similar to the printing press, or radio, or television, and societies in the past found ways to mitigate the risks of those inventions and to optimize for their good mostly” (1:24:30). “The fact that social media is so new means that we’re that generation who’s experiencing the printing press, or the rise of radio, or the rise of television” (1:25:15). “Not participating is not failing, it’s not giving up, it’s not weakness” (1:41:10).   Additionally, make sure to connect with Rand on Twitter and LinkedIn! You can also reach out to Rand via email at rand@sparktoro.com and check out his blog! Thank you so much to Rand for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

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 top up-and-coming management thinkers. Her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy, and her TEDx talk, How to Make a Behavior Addictive, has more than half a million views. Before coming to Yale, she earned a doctorate in marketing at Harvard and managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand at Mattel. She lives with her family in New Haven, CT.   Zoe had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “So much of our ability to influence and persuade other human beings is a direct result of the level of connection that they feel with us. And that level of connection comes from how authentic we are with them in that moment” (6:50). “Curiosity is something that can only happen in the immediate, present moment” (7:05). “Being imperfect and human makes other people like us” (12:10). “Charisma is a combination of confidence and connection. The way to do both of those at once is by focusing your attention on the other person” (13:10). “How can you have that ability to make the other person feel special?” (16:00). “Ask more questions” (17:55). “I love shifting away from anytime we’re saying, ‘you should.’ This is a phrase that sparks immediate resistance from the other person’s unconscious” (20:40). “It’s not that we shouldn’t talk about ourselves, but that we could all do a lot less of it and be better liked. People like us more when we ask them questions. And they like us even more when we ask them follow-up questions” (24:30). “If we end up going to some place highly personal and vulnerable, then we really need you, as the question asker, to share some personal, vulnerable stuff (26:50). “Every person should have to have a sales job at some point in their life… You learn to face rejection, live through it, and build resilience” (36:35). “All you need to know about life is that every person you meet, find something that you like about them” (43:50). “It’s about them, [the students], it’s not about me” (47:50). “My standards for myself have gone down so much, that I’ve lost this desire for perfectionism from any of us” (48:30). “We’re just human beings. Try to serve and enjoy each other” (46:45). “In a meeting, we should definitely have an agenda, but not a script” (52:35). “Anyone who doesn’t have a real boss needs to have a coach” (59:20).   Additionally, make sure to connect with Zoe on Twitter and LinkedIn. I would also greatly encourage you to check out Zoe’s website and to purchase her new book, Influence is your Superpower. Thank you so much to Zoe for coming on the podcast! 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. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening. -Brian