Intentional Performers

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 has faced along the way. Maggie has torn her ACL twice since becoming a pro and has had to develop a tremendous mindset to deal with that adversity. Maggie will also talk about how her mindset has changed through the years. Thanks so much to Maggie for coming on and if you want to learn more about her feel free to follow her on Twitter @MaggieLucas33.

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 number of years before making the decision to get out of coaching to take a job with the Jordan Brand clothing company. At Jordan Brand Laron works hand in hand with some of the greatest athletes in both basketball and football. Laron is an extremely thoughtful guy. During this episode he will talk about his journey, what he learned along the way, and how he continues to develop his mindset every day. We talk about the importance of self-talk, interpretation, and preparation. I know you will enjoy Laron’s perspective If you want to follow Laron on Twitter you can do so @Profit4eva. But, full disclosure, Laron said he checks it sparingly!

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 Cola. Jesse is also a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks. As an author he wrote a New York Times bestselling book called Living with a Seal: 31 Days Training With the Toughest Man on the Planet. I read the book and found it to be funny, inspirational, and just terrific story-telling. I highly recommend it. Jesse is a high energy guy who is a person of action. He is obsessed with fitness and completed an Ultra Marathon competition where he completed 100 miles run in 24 hours. If you want to learn more about Jesse you can follow him on Twitter: @the100MileMan. Jesse also has a terrific Facebook group that challenges people to push their fitness limits called: we do hard stuff. Thanks so much to Jesse for coming on.

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 our conversation is about the rest of Adrianne's life. Who she is. Who she was. And who she is constantly aspiring to be. Adrianne's willingness to make herself vulnerable leads to conversations about her battles with perfectionism, post traumatic stress, and the everyday challenges of living with a prosthetic leg. This conversation is really about a strong, independent, constantly evolving, curious, and driven woman, who aspires to be successful at whatever she does. Adrianne values challenges and inspires through her actions. She is honest and brave, and flawed like all of us. Thanks to Adrianne for coming on the podcast and sharing her journey with a stranger.  Definitely give Adrianne a follow on Twitter: @AdrianneHaslet.    

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, communication, and culture, predominantly by using improv. You can also check out his podcast here. Lastly, he's a great follow on Twitter @hernandojr. Planells has one of the most diverse backgrounds in basketball in both coaching and player development. He has coached at every level including a stint with the Maine Red Claws from 2010-11 of the NBA Development League. As an assistant coach, he was in charge of player development, scouting and did on-court coaching. He helped develop Boston Celtics No. 1 draft pick Avery Bradley and NBA D-League Rookie of the Year DeShawn Sims. Planells has also spoken at coaching clinics and conducts player development camps all over the United States and in countries such as Japan, Philippines, Australia, Switzerland and Taiwan. In 2011, he founded ELITE athlete training, which specialized in personal training and consulting services for athletes. Through his work with ELITE, he trained and assisted over 100 athletes reach their goal of gaining a college scholarship or playing professionally. From 2005-10, Planells served as a scout for Marty Blake, who is the Director of Scouting for the NBA. In his role as a scout, Planells put together scouting reports evaluating NBA prospects which were circulated to every NBA general manager and player personnel director. In 2008, Planells returned to the United States after serving as head coach of the Ryukyu Golden Kings, an expansion team that is a part of the BJ League (Basketball Japan). For the 2006-07 season, he served as the head basketball coach for The Hollywood Fame, a team that participated in the American Basketball Association (ABA). In 2005, Planells was named the first head coach of the Wyoming Golden Eagles out of the All-American Professional Basketball League. At that time, the 28-year-old was the youngest professional basketball coach in the country. From 2003-05, Planells served as the assistant coach in charge of offense for Citrus College, one of the top community colleges in the state of California. Other coaching stops include a stint as the head varsity coach at Los Angeles High School (1998-2000), Immaculate Heart High School (1996-97) in Tucson, Ariz., and as an assistant at Monrovia High School (1995-96). Thanks to Hernando for coming on the podcast.

Today we go beyond the surface with Coach Jessica Kern.  Coach Kern is the head women's basketball coach at Tennessee State University. Coach Kern has a terrific way with words, is super engaging, and has an incredible and irregular story. She will discuss her path to coaching, what it was like to growing up around basketball, and how sport psychology helped her excel as a college track athlete and in the future as a pro basketball player. Before taking the job at Tennessee State she was the head coach at Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU). Prior to taking over the program at MVSU, Kern was an assistant coach at Furman University following a four-year stretch as head coach at NCAA Division II Lincoln (Pa.) University. In 2014-15, she was named Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Coach of the Year after leading her squad to a 22-9 mark and a share of the CIAA Northern Division title.  Taking over a Lincoln program in 2011 that had won just three games the previous season, Kern coached the Lady Lions to seven wins in her first season, 10 victories the following year, and to a 12-16 mark in 2013-14 before posting a 22-9 record in her final season. The 22 wins was a school record and carried Lincoln to a CIAA Tournament championship game appearance. She also guided Lincoln to the program's first win over a Division I opponent, a 94-86 triumph over Morgan State. Before accepting the head coaching position at Lincoln, she served as an assistant coach and media specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, immediately following a two-year period (2008-10) as an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Thanks to Coach Kern for coming on the podcast! You can give her a follow on twitter: @Coach_Jkern.

Today I go beyond the surface with Alan Stein, Jr.  Alan is a basketball performance coach, corporate speaker, and podcast host. He is currently the director of basketball for pure sweat.  We discuss how passion and purpose drive motivation, the pitfalls of grinding, how to be fearless without being complacent, and many more concepts.  As you will hear in the podcast, Alan and I have similar thoughts on how to maximize a human's ability to perform! Alan has over 15 years of experience working with elite high school, college and NBA players including work for the Nike Skills Academies, McDonald’s All-American game, Jordan Brand Classic, NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp and the CP3 Elite Guard Camp. As you will hear in our conversation, Alan has developed a passion for delivering high-energy keynote performances to develop genuine leadership, authentic team cohesion and true mental toughness. You can check out Alan's podcast here, his website here, and give him a follow on twitter here. Thanks to Alan for being so generous with his time!

On today's podcast I chat with Cam Lynch.  Cam is a professional football player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Cam starred at Syracuse University and also excelled in track and field in high school.  Cam will talk about his mindset for performance and how that has been cultivated throughout his life.  Thank you Cam for coming on the show and make sure to follow Cam on Twitter @CameronLynch50. 

In today's podcast I chat with Paul Goldstein.  Paul is the Taube Family Director of Men's tennis at Stanford University.  Paul also had a successful playing career where he at one point was ranked the 58th best tennis player in the world.  Paul played professionally for 10 years and before that had a tremendously successful career while playing at Stanford.  Additionally, Paul also spend significant time in the corporate world after his playing days.  For all of those reasons, and many more, Paul made a fantastic guest on the podcast.  Thanks to Paul for coming on the podcast.  If you want to see how his team is doing, you can give Stanford Men's tennis a follow on Twitter: @StanfordTennis. 

Today I go Beyond the Surface with professional runner, Heather Kampf.  Heather talks about her mindset for performance and how she prepares for the day of a meet.  Heather also talks about her run in 2008 where she fell in the middle of the race, got up, and won the race. Heather is an American middle-distance runner and four-time United States National Champion in the 1 mile road race While at the University of Minnesota Kampf became the schools most decorated women's track and field athlete in history earning All-American honors eight-times, holding ten school records and becoming the only Golden Gopher to compete in every NCAA championship in cross country, indoor and outdoor track during her time at the university. As a freshman in 2006 Kampf was the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Champion in the 800 meter race. In 2008 Kampf won the University of Minnesota's Golden Goldy female athlete of the year award. You can follow Heather on Twitter @HeatherRaeKampf and check out her website: www.heatherkampf.blogspot.com